Battle High Gas Prices: Tips to Boost Your Fuel Economy

How to save on gas without getting rid of your car.

August 2008 By Multiple Authors

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Use Higher Gears

Shifting into higher gears quickly—even skipping gears—instead of holding lower ones can add miles to your gallon. Especially if you have a car with a torquey motor and a manual transmission, like a Chevrolet Corvette, which forces the driver to skip from first to fourth gear under low-load driving, skipping gears will keep engine speed—and fuel consumption—low during acceleration.

Use Cruise Control

Letting the car do your steady-speed driving helps more than you’d think. Even if you can maintain a constant speed with your right foot, you can’t make the microscopic adjustments that your car’s computer can, which allow it to continuously fine-tune fuel dosage for maximum efficiency.

Idle in Neutral

Idling accounts for up to 17 percent of fuel consumption, according to the EPA. While you are waiting at a red light, shift into neutral to disconnect the engine from the torque converter, which reduces the load on the engine.

Don’t Idle

All drivers should consider turning the engine off during prolonged stays in one place such as ferry or railroad crossings or while waiting in the driveway of your golf buddy’s place for him to load up his clubs.

Reduce the Load on Your Car

All that crap in your trunk is pinching your gas mileage to the tune of one to two percent for every 100 pounds of excess weight. Out with the pet carriers, dumbbells, bowling balls, and garden tools, in with the jumper cables, emergency kit, and helium balloons.

Reduce Your Aerodynamic Load

Remove the crossbars of the roof rack on your SUV or wagon when not in use. All they’re doing is creating more aerodynamic drag. Ditto other extraneous exterior add-ons such as cargo carriers, extension mirrors for trucks, and three-tier spoilers.

Reduce the Load on Your Engine

Using the vent instead of the air conditioner when possible can provide an increase in fuel economy upwards of five percent.

Learn to Drive a Stick

Suppose you’re buying a new car. The dealership has two identical cars, exactly what you wanted, but one of them gets an extra 2 mpg. On top of that, it costs almost $1000 less than the other. Why would you not buy it?

Cars with manual transmissions reliably best identical automatic-equipped cars by at least a couple mpg. You can learn to drive a stick. It’s not as hard as you might think it is. Go to an empty mall parking lot, and spend a few hours one night. Drive a stick daily for a couple weeks, and you’ll have it down. You won’t have to monkey around with any of these tricks, and you’ll see a more significant increase in your fuel economy.